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Eckelson May 24th 18/83Dear Frantie,I now take the pleasure to write a few lines we are all well and hope to hear you are all the same. We are now settled at Eckelson it is 76 miles west of Fargo and 20 miles east of Jamestown it is a beautiful place when we reached here there was only seven houses a store and saloon and now there is 18 and is going to be two more stores a hotel depot it is a quarter of a mile from Lake Eckelson it is a beautiful Lake it is seven miles long they are going to have sail boat this summer but we will have splendid times a bathing. Oh. I think this is a beautiful country I would not go back to Penn. to live for a good [d]eal. I like it much better out here than I did there but then I would like to be

A letter from Estella S. to DeFrantie Kingsley talking about her life in Eckelson, Dakota Territory. She talks about church services, Sunday School, visits from friends and family from the East, riding in wagons, and the local plants and animals.

Eugene Kingsley's daughter DeFrantie, addressed as Frantie by her correspondent, we know only as Estella S. At the time of this letter, Frantie was twenty-two years old; Estella was probably near that age. Estella was living near Eckelson with her family on her father's claim.

Eckelson May 24th 18/83Dear Frantie,I now take the pleasure to write a few lines we are all well and hope to hear you are all the same. We are now settled at Eckelson it is 76 miles west of Fargo and 20 miles east of Jamestown it is a beautiful place when we reached here there was only seven houses a store and saloon and now there is 18 and is going to be two more stores a hotel depot it is a quarter of a mile from Lake Eckelson it is a beautiful Lake it is seven miles long they are going to have sail boat this summer but we will have splendid times a bathing. Oh. I think this is a beautiful country I would not go back to Penn. to live for a good [d]eal. I like it much better out here than I did there but then I would like to be